Annoying victims of the scrapping of two ships from the 2004 tsunami museum

5 months ago

Relatives of the victims in Thailand of the 2004 tsunami, which caused more than 230,000 deaths in a dozen countries bathed by the Indian Ocean, have shown their outrage over the scrapping of two ships of the museum that remembers the tragedy.

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"It's an unacceptable behavior equivalent to erasing history and a lack of consideration with the community," Maitree Jongkraijug, coordinator of the victims' association Red Andaman, said in a Facebook post.

The two ships, which were swept inland by the giant waves of the tsunami, were at the entrance of a museum to remember the catastrophe in the western province of Phang Nga, one of the regions hit by the natural disaster.

The director of the provincial office of Culture, Piyanuch Srisuk, told Efe that the boats will be rebuilt "exactly the same" for the new museum, which is "in the design phase".

A version that distrust the relatives of the victims who ask for an explanation and the dismissal of Piyanuch.

"We do not believe that the Government is going to rebuild them as they say, we are sad as we prepare the commemoration of the fourteenth anniversary of the tragedy," which took place on December 26, 2004, he said in his Maitree brief.

The Ministry of Culture acquired the boats for 11 million bat (334,000 dollars or 293,000 euros) to be part of the memorial park.

The bad state of the boats as a result of a deficient work of conservation, according to the relatives, took to the authorities to the decision of the clearing for reasons of security.

Culture has a budget of 30 million bat ($ 910,000 or 800,000 million euros) to build a new museum, which has been working since June.

The 2004 tsunami devastated some coastal areas in the provinces of Phuket, Pang Nga, Krabi, Trang, and Satun and damaged several coral barriers that were in a process of deterioration due to human action.

About 226,500 people were killed, most of them in Indonesia, in the dozen countries of the Indian Ocean that were hit by the tsunami after the tsunami in western Sumatra.